Contrasted avian communities between two protected areas in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Abstract

AbstractAlthough urban and suburban protected areas may contribute to conserving biodiversity, their importance remains poorly documented. We compared the composition of bird assemblages between two protected areas, the Urban National Park of Martissant (UNPM) and the suburban Wynne Farm Ecological Reserve (WFER) in Haiti, one the poorest country in the world, plagued with severe deforestation and environmental degradation. Species were identified along transects without distance estimation. A total of 718 birds belonging to 38 different species were censused (494 at UNPM and 224 at WFER, from 24 and 26 species, respectively), including two endemic and vulnerable species,Corvus leucognaphalusandAmazona ventralis, observed only at the urban site. Species richness, diversity, evenness and species-abundance distributions did not differ significantly between sites. However, the composition of the two avian assemblages differed significantly, with only 31.6% species in common and a significant difference in their relative abundance. We found no evidence for a difference in the degree of forest dependency between the two assemblages. However, mainly and strict insectivorous species accounted for a larger proportion of observations at WFER (34.8%) compared to UNPM (19.6%). Factors influencing the contrast in avian assemblage composition between two sites include differences in elevation and associated vegetation, difference in water availability and variation in the ability of species to adapt to the urban environment. Our results demonstrate the importance and complementarity of the two protected areas for the conservation of avian diversity in Haiti.